Thursday, December 29, 2016

In 2017, It's Time To #MakeArtNotWar

As I briefly touched on in my last post, there were some creative goals I had for 2016 that I failed to meet. I wrote and released some short stories I am very proud of, and even collected some of them for my first anthology. But I did not get the next book in the Parted Veil series out, and two projects Jolene and I wrote did not release this year like we had originally planned.

And while I think all three of those projects will ultimately be better off for the delays when they do come out, I need to be better in 2017.

I think one of the primary reasons for a lackluster output in 2016 was a lack of focus. I spent a lot of time talking to people about writing, and discussing projects I was working on. I spent a lot of time following the happenings of the writing world on social media. But I didn't spend enough time creating.

And let's be honest, 2016 was a rough year. It's hard not to be distracted by what's going on in the world and in our country right now. The ever-increasing depressing and disturbing news certainly affected my creativity this past year.

In short, I need to put my focus back where it needs to be--on getting projects finished and stories out into the world.

Writer Monica Valentinelli has created a 2017 challenge for herself and anyone else who wants to participate. It's called Make Art Not War, and it's about having a positive impact on the world through the creation of art.

The rules the Monica has laid out for this challenge really speak to me. Specifically, the rules about making a commitment to writing every day, and reducing the time you spend on social media. So, I'm committing to writing for at least an hour a day, and limiting my social media check-ins to twice a week.

I will be blogging about my progress on this challenge here on the site, and when I do check in on social media, I'll be using the #MakeArtNotWar2017 hashtag along with other participants.

I want to thank Monica for providing some much-needed inspiration heading into 2017. I have big plans, and it's going to take a lot of hard work to get there.